Cards Against Originality comes with the original deck of cards as well as all five expansion packs and the rules are the same. But playing it can be a bit of a challenge as it’s not really the type of game you can play against a computer. Someone needs to create a game and then send out a custom link to other people so they can join in. So you need to be able to get a group of people to play at the same time, which might be a little difficult if you want to play sporadically while at work.

And if you’re able to get a group of players together in the evening, you may prefer to do it in person because it’s more fun to mock each others’ answers face-to-face.

Cards Against Originality is free but Whitfield is accepting donations to cover hosting fees for the site.

On Feb. 21, the entire community will come together at the Art Gallery of Ontario to celebrate the five-year anniversary of its landmark development organization, the Hand Eye Society, with a Fancy Videogame Party.

Courtesy Art Gallery of Ontario

The Hand Eye Society, a non-profit group that brings together developers, journalists, and publishers, helps to raise support for various gaming artists located in the city.

“Toronto is a hive for games groups and events, like Dames Making Games, Bento Miso, IGDA Toronto, Site3, and various annual game jams – so the Hand Eye tries its best to mesh the community together, while fulfilling a mandate to encourage the wider public to take more interest in the fascinating world of video games,” Alex Hayter, event organizer for the Hand Eye Society said.

With the fifth anniversary quickly approaching, Hayter said he and his team wanted to throw a massive ball, one that represented everything they’ve achieved over the past half decade.

Courtesy Art Gallery of Ontario

It was a trip to the annual Game Developers Conference (GDC) in L.A. last year that cemented the idea in Hayter’s head.

“I attended the Wild Rumpus party at GDC last March and was so impressed, as this was exactly the sort of relaxed, but exciting, event that we were looking to host here,” Hayter said.

“Jim (Munroe, co-founder of the Hand Eye Society) and I got in touch with The Wild Rumpus’ Marie Foulston (who moved to Toronto last summer), and both our organizations worked together with the Art Gallery of Ontario (AGO) to put together the Fancy Videogame Party.”

Courtesy Art Gallery of Ontario

In Hayter’s opinion, the AGO was the perfect stomping ground for the party as it encapsulated every aspect of arts and culture they try to achieve daily.

“The AGO is very much the epicentre of the Canadian arts establishment, and the audience they tap into – largely outside of the Hand Eye Society’s regular events and programming – represented a pretty awesome opportunity to reach those members of the arts-appreciating public that aren’t necessarily aware of the incredible stuff happening in the indie games scene,” he said.

Reaching a community outside the traditional indie gaming scene is pivotal to the party. It is one of the main reasons the event included so many indie titles for attendees to roam around and play. With the succession of indie games rapidly moving past the AAA forum and garnering the largest audience they’ve ever had, Hayter and the team at Hand Eye Society thought a massive party with non-gamers would be one of the best ways to demonstrate the independent talent.

Award-winning Canadian-developed games, including The Yahwg, Towerfall, and Tether, will be joined by international sensations, such as Joust, Nidhogg, and Pole Riders.

“Everything was picked with both the physical space in mind as well as what games would complement one another. So we’ve picked everything from super-competitive sportsy titles, to wacky, creative adventure games, to a sticker-printing selfie booth,” Hayter explained.

On top of providing attendees with multiple games to discover, or rediscover with hundreds of friends, the Fancy Videogame Party has also brought out some of the best DJs making music both in the scene and out of it.

With the indie development scene continuously expanding across the country, Hayter said he’s proud to be a part of an organization that helps developers create and market their games.

“…I think the spirit of creative collaboration is mostly to blame for the rampant success of the Canadian indie scene. I think that groups like the Hand Eye Society have helped this legacy of working together to take a well-deserved grasp of our games community across the country, and especially in Toronto.”

If you live in or around Toronto and you care about video games, you shouldn’t need to read this post. Because you already know about Gamercamp Lv3. You’re probably AT Gamercamp, right now, as we speak. Wave hello!

If you live in or around Toronto and care about games (note: caring about games means having a passionate interest in the people who make games and play games, and not just about hitting 10th Prestige in Modern Warfare 3), and somehow you don’t know about Gamercamp… well, we have a little problem.

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